LazyMoneyGuy

Low-Effort Takes on Your Finances

  • Hello

    Hello Internet,

    I decided that now is the right time to bring the LazyMoneyGuy blog back. It’s important to be on top of your finances, even when we may tend to be lazy about money. With the current economy, it’s important to keep tabs on your wallet to make sure it doesn’t go empty.

    • I will never recommend or refer anything I do not stand by.
    • Some of the posts on the site may contain affiliate links. Clicking may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
    • All content on this site is to be human written with absolutely no AI generated content.
    • I’m not a financial advisor and cannot provide any financial advice.

    //Azriel

  • Securing Your Digital Wallet

    I will never recommend or refer anything I do not stand by.
    All content on this site is to be human written with absolutely no AI generated content.
    I’m not a financial advisor and cannot provide any financial advice.

    Happy Money Monday!

    Today I’m bringing up secure payments using mobile devices.

    Google Wallet and Apple Wallet allow you to store digital references of your cards for secure use. You can avoid credit card skimmers and avoid carrying all of your physical cards by adding them to your phone. Your phone links with your bank and may securely store and cycle offline payment tokens that act as one-time-use burner cards that can’t be charged again fraudulently by vendors. With iOS, your cards are typically stored on the “Secure Enclave” of the iPhone, where on Android, it’s in the “Secure Element” if your phone has one, or otherwise it will fall back to the OS software to secure your credentials. This means, your cards need to have verification that YOU are ready to pay by proving you are there before any payment token is released to a vendor, and in nearly all cases, your phone must be unlocked to tap and pay, and you may have to authenticate with biometrics or a PIN. Apple does allow having a dedicated transit card for paying for rides without unlocking your iPhone.

    The big “under the hood” benefit is that your wallet is secure, as you aren’t using the same payment token each time, unlike swiping a physical card. The other major benefit is convenience as you have the cards you need ready to tap to make purchases in stores. This means that if you have several credit cards for different types of transactions, you can choose which one without digging through a wallet.

    It is important to note that some vendors are still using older Point-of-Sale systems that don’t support Tap To Pay and only handle stripe-reader card swipes. Samsung Pay on older devices actually let you simulate a card swipe for card readers that don’t support this, however this feature was removed with newer Samsung devices because it enabled a lot of fraudulent transactions. Samsung Pay in the present day performs similar to Google Wallet in how it secures your cards, but in most cases, you can choose which ecosystem you would prefer to use when on a Samsung phone and are not locked to Samsung Pay.

    You can also store most loyalty reward cards on your wallets, either by scanning the physical cards (which Google Wallet allows) or adding them in from companion apps. Instead of having to load the right app at the right point, you just have to open your wallet app and scan from there. Some vendors like Walgreens can even hook in and load your loyalty card when tapping to pay, saving you the extra step of scanning your card or entering your phone number. Unfortunately, Costco doesn’t appear to want to support this feature, though you can still scan your physical membership card barcode, but they encourage using barcodes in their mobile app.

    It’s also becoming relatively common to add access passes to these wallets, such as travel and concert tickets. These will come from links in emails or mobile apps and websites when applicable. There’s less of a demand to print out physical tickets when you can pay and enter using the phone you already have, though when dealing with critical travel, it’s always a good idea to have a backup in case your phone dies or is stolen, or you lose your paper tickets, so why not have both!

    Another up-and-coming convenience of these Wallet apps are that you can add your IDs for a handful of US states, though this is being adapted relatively slowly and often only being accepted for use by the TSA and limited state-level use. You can not add USA passports to your phone.

    You can also add your cards to some wearable devices. FitBit and WearOS devices support various forms of Google Wallet. Apple Watches similarly support the Apple ecosystem. Samsung wearables often allow a choice of either Google or Samsung Pay.

    One important thing to note: While you are protected from fraud both by your phone and banking regulations, it’s there is a small complication with a particular combination of the two. If you have a Visa card in your “Transit Card” slot on an iPhone, there is unfortunately an unpatched vulnerability that could theoretically have a fraudster trick your device into authorizing a large transaction by having your phone think it is a small, low-risk transaction. Therefore, even though there is no widespread attacks of this finding, you should always be vigilant and check your financial statements and push notifications to be sure that the only payments you were charged were actually performed by you, and if not, to contact your banking institution.

  • Got Cash App?

    I will never recommend or refer anything I do not stand by.
    Some of the posts on our site may contain affiliate links. Clicking may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
    All content on this site is to be human written with absolutely no AI generated content.
    I’m not a financial advisor and cannot provide any financial advice.

    Happy Money Monday!

    This week, I’m keeping it short and simple, with an app that was designed to be just that. Cash App by Block Inc. (formerly known as Square Inc.) is one of the most popular money transfer services in the United States.

    Cash App was originally designed as a concept where just having your phone number or email address connected to a debit card would allow you to send and request money from friends and family. This helped it become a major competitor to the other leading services (which I’ll talk about later down the line). It has long since expanded it’s feature set to include direct deposits, savings accounts, and even crypto trading. While it is a Fintech, your balances are still backed by actual banks and are thus FDIC Insured.

    The service is a dependable solution for sending and receiving money quickly, like handing cash to someone and not waiting for a check to clear. You can have transactions with people using their phone number or email address, or better yet, dedicated “Cash Tag” usernames for the users you are exchanging with. It’s pretty common to see Cash Tags for payments for quick transactions in the real world, such as charities or at a bake sale, and helps ensure you are sending your money to the right place.

    Cash App is owned by the company behind Square, a reputable payment processor that became popular with it’s “square” credit card point-of-sale readers that connected to headphone jacks of smartphones. These days, payments at Square-enabled restaurants and other businesses can even tie-in royalty rewards directly to your Cash App account. While it’s usual for businesses to use Square for goods and services transactions, some vendors might use the Business mode of Cash App, which is separate from the more complex Square platform.

    It’s important to note that you need to always be vigilant with your financial transactions. There’s many scams designed around targeting various money transfer services because payments are typically instant and can drain your wallet if you aren’t paying attention.

    Information on the Cash App referral:
    If you download Cash App, create an account and use the referral code LVLNSKT and then send $5 to someone within 14 days, you will receive a $5 bonus.

  • Pay With Privacy

    I will never recommend or refer anything I do not stand by.
    Some of the posts on our site may contain affiliate links. Clicking may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
    All content on this site is to be human written with absolutely no AI generated content.
    I’m not a financial advisor and cannot provide any financial advice.

    Happy Money Monday!

    Today I’m bringing up a service I use all the time that is extremely useful for securing your wallet. Privacy.com gives you virtual debit cards that you can use for online purchases with custom restrictions, that pulls funds straight from your checking account. You can limit transactions to a single merchant, put spending limits, or even have single use cards that expire after the first transaction. This service essentially gives you burner virtual debit cards for online purchases.

    Why is this useful? Why not use a credit card and get points or cashback? Well, sometimes it’s worth it to ensure that unexpected charges don’t come your way. Having your actual card on file with a random trial for a fitness supplement site or suspicious online purchase is risky. You are trusting them to securely hold your financial information. Every day, services encounter security leaks online for financial information. Sometimes, the charges are intentional fraud, such as surprise charges in small amounts, hoping that you the consumer don’t notice it. Worse, sometimes there are large transactions intending to drain your bank account balance and then, by the time you notice, it’s too late and the money is gone.

    The last thing anyone wants to do is call their financial institution and try to get money back. With credit cards, there is a small delay, but with debit cards, one bad swipe or skimming incident can drain your whole account. There are some laws and regulations that require fraud investigations for financial institutions, but using Privacy.com mitigates a lot of these problems and lets you take control of your wallet.

    So the next time you plan to drop a few dollars on a trial from an advertisement, or buy a product on a website that you don’t necessarily trust, try using a burner Privacy card.

    Information on the Privacy.com referral link:
    If you use the referral link to create a new account, you will receive $5 toward your first purchase, and can create up to 12 cards a month on the free tier.

  • Meta Viewpoints

    I will never recommend or refer anything I do not stand by.
    All content on this site is to be human written with absolutely no AI generated content.
    I’m not a financial advisor and cannot provide any financial advice.

    Happy Money Monday!

    Today I’m writing about another reward program, this time from Facebook/Meta. It’s a mobile app that provides data collection surveys of assorted types. It’s a bit of a waiting game for when they will provide surveys and to what degree or scale, but when you get the surveys, they are generally easy to complete and pay decently well.

    One example of a study includes app usage collection. This may be considered a privacy risk, but all surveys are opt-in, and it’s important to note that the data they collect can be retrieved by most applications without a payout. I actively get a recurring study for this one that pays out 85 points every two days, where 200 points is the value of a dollar.

    Another recurring study I have encountered include an AI usage survey, where they asked what AI models and services I used over the past two days, with a 250 point payout for each occurrence.

    Some longer tasks included audio training, where you may need to record 100 or so queries someone might ask a voice assistant. Each of these studies I participated in paid out 1,000 points, which is equivalent to five dollars.

    Notifications need to be on for Meta Viewpoints, you can get notified by the app and by email when new surveys are available, but it’s important to note that the number of participants they need are limited, so new survey studies may close out fast.

    The payout structure is simple:
    You can cash out at 5 dollar increments to gift cards, or it will automatically cash out when you are at 10,000 points (fifty dollars) or supposedly around 90 days it will automatically cash out. So it’s important to keep an eye out on your email if you plan to accrue points as it may cash out automatically.
    Cash outs are for gift cards delivered via Tremendous, which is a well-established service that allows receivers to choose the gift cards of your choice, such as Amazon.com and Target gift cards, and sometimes Visa prepaid cards.

    You can sign up for Meta Viewpoints by downloading the Android or iOS apps.

  • Google Opinion Rewards

    I will never recommend or refer anything I do not stand by.
    Some of the posts on our site may contain affiliate links. Clicking may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
    All content on this site is to be human written with absolutely no AI generated content.
    I’m not a financial advisor and cannot provide any financial advice.

    Happy Money Monday!

    Today I’ll bring up a short easy lazy service for some spare change, Google Opinion Rewards.

    It’s straightforward, have the app on your device, and get occasional survey notifications that take a few moments to complete. Usually, I get location-based surveys based on places I’ve been or driven past, explain if and how I paid at a store, and sometimes upload a receipt from a grocery store, gas station or fast-food chain. Sometimes I’ll get previews of Google Play store listings asking me to rate how interesting they appear to me.

    Sound very Android-specific? Apple users aren’t excluded as they can participate too. On Android, you earn several cents and dollars for each short survey directly added to your Google Play balance which can be used for app and in-app purchases, subscriptions, rentals, etc. On iOS, it’s actually more flexible because you can cash out directly to your PayPal account to use any way you like.

    Information on the Google Opinion Rewards referral link:
    It can be visited on an Android or iOS device only and will 404 otherwise. A brief initial survey will be given initially.

    Information on the PayPal referral link:
    If signing up for a new account in the US, you can earn 1000 rewards points (worth a $10 redemption value) by connecting a bank account or card and then spending $5 within 30 days.

  • Checking Accounts

    I will never recommend or refer anything I do not stand by.
    Some of the posts on our site may contain affiliate links. Clicking may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
    All content on this site is to be human written with absolutely no AI generated content.
    I’m not a financial advisor and cannot provide any financial advice.

    Happy Money Monday!

    Starting off for the first post in this series, I wanted to write about personal checking accounts. These days, as physical checks are less prevalent, banks have recently been marketing them as “Spending Accounts”. However, the concept remains, it’s a place for money transfers between yourself and others, such as receiving direct deposits from your employer, depositing money received from others, paying bills, and transferring money to other accounts. Typically, a debit card is provided alongside a checking account, and depending on the bank or credit union, some physical checks as well.

    As these accounts are meant to be used day to day, it’s critical to be aware that many banks prey on people, especially the lower-class. There’s often hidden fees associated with these accounts, such as overdraft fees from overspending, low balance fees, inactivity fees, ATM withdrawal fees, ACH fees, wire transfer feees, and numerous others. Some banks will get new members via colleges by having on-location branches and no-cost student accounts, where after graduating, the account suddenly gets loaded with unexpected fees.

    It’s also important to note that personal checking accounts are usually one of three options:

    1. From a bank
    2. From a credit union
    3. From a fintech backed by a bank

    These options have overlap on whether physical locations are available for access to a banker, whether the funds are protected by FDIC or NCUA or not at all, whether there is good customer support, and whether their provided accounts are loaded with fees or not.

    For a good catch-all Checking account, I’m currently recommending Ally Bank. They are an online-only bank with an interest-earning checking account. They have other products as well, such as a high-yield Savings account, CDs, investment accounts, retirement accounts, and more. But today, I’m specifically focused on their “Spending” accounts.

    Why it’s lazy-friendly: the Ally Bank checking account is good all-around and is online-focused, no need to go to a bank. There are some other new options out there, but Ally has proven to be a solid option.

    Ally Bank has no overdraft fees. They have two completely optional options for handling potential overdrafts: Overdraft transfers which will pull amounts of $100 from other accounts, and CoverDraft which will allow a negative balance of up to $250 for up to 14 days. Alternatively, you can simply choose neither (my personal choice) and budget appropriately to avoid getting an overdraft decline or negative balance.

    Ally Bank additionally doesn’t charge any ATM withdrawal fees inside the United States. They are in-network with Allpoint and MoneyPass and will refund up to $10 per statement period for all fees charged by out of network ATMs.

    Ally has fair 24/7 customer support which can be reached for most issues to be resolved. For more specific account issues like account investigations, the business-day customer support has more resources and access than their after-hours lines.

    The main “catch” with Ally is that it’s completely online. It’s an actual FDIC insured bank bound by US Banking regulations. You can deposit checks via the mobile app. You can add cash at Walmarts if needed. You have access to paperless statements online, and optional mailed paper statements. There’s no in-person banker to talk to. And in this day and age, that’s almost never needed anyway.

    I’m pushing off writing about the “Buckets” available in Ally’s spending and saving accounts for another post, as those are more about budgeting.

    There’s some good alternative options that I’m considering recommending, including SoFi, but not yet.

    Information about the Ally Bank referral link:
    If you use the referral link to open a new Ally Spending account (or Savings, make to read the specific requirements) and set up qualifying direct deposits (such as payroll from your employer) you will receive a $100 welcome bonus. The fine print states that you must receive a deposit at least once a month for three months in order to qualify.